Homeowners, pet owners, and land owners all have a need to build fences for a variety of reasons around their property. For example, landowners may want to simply define the metes and bounds of their property line. Homeowners may want to add a degree of safety keeping unwanted visitors out of their property or alternatively, keeping small children within their property, or both. Pet owners may want to keep their pets confined to a given area. There are myriad reasons for wanting to build a fence.
A fence, as an obstruction keeping things in or out of the defined area also prevents wanted ingress or egress through the fence line. There are many known methods for providing ingress and egress through a fence, such as conventional doors and/or gates.
However, building a door or gate through a fence can have various drawbacks. Firstly, the fence generally appears differently where the door or gate is located. Second, the door or gate can be cumbersome to build, maintain and use. Third, the door or gate may not limit ingress or egress to just those desired instances and can actually function as a hole in the fence. A door or gate may be difficult to install, expensive, made of materials very different than the fence within which it is to function, and may easily break requiring difficult and expensive repair or replacement.
There have been many attempts to construct a better fence door or gate. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,757 titled ROLLER GATE OPENER, discloses, “a garage door opener is mounted on a fence to move a roller gate horizontally across a fence opening. A trolley connected to the gate slides on a horizontal guide which is mounted on the fence, extending between the fence and the gate in its open position.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,940 titled DOG DOOR, discloses, “a two way animal door adapted to be installed in an existing door to allow two way travel of household pets. More specifically, the present invention pertains to a frame which is inserted into a rectangular aperture formed within an existing door. The frame carries a centrally located post which serves to divide the frame into two equal portions. Within the frame are 380, position a first and a second door. The first door is openable only in one direction, while the second door is openable only the opposite direction. Each of the doors is mounted to the surrounding frame by way of adjustable spring biased hinges. The various components of the present invention and the manner in which they interrelate will be described in greater detail hereinafter.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,132 titled FENCE GATE OPENER WITH FLUID GRAVITY CLOSURE ASSEMBLY, discloses, “a fence gate opener with fluid gravity closure assembly having 1) a main closure gate assembly with a main gate assembly; 2) a main support base assembly operable to be connected to a ground support surface and having the main gate assembly pivotally connected thereto; 3) a fluid gravity closure assembly operably connected to the main support base assembly and the main gate assembly for pivotal movement therewith; and 4) a gate actuator treadle assembly operably connected to the main support base assembly and the main gate assembly to cause pivotal movement thereof from the opened to the closed conditions. The main closure gate assembly includes a counterbalance weight assembly being rotatable with the main gate assembly on a pivot shaft member from opened to closed conditions of the main gate assembly. The main support base assembly includes a support frame assembly having a pivotal gate support assembly connected thereto. The fluid gravity closure assembly includes a weight transfer fluid tank assembly having a sealed fluid flow system with three tank members operable to 1) have fluid flow from a first tank member to a second tank member in the opened condition; and 2) have controlled fluid flow from the second tank member to a third tank member and back to the second tank member to provide a controlled movement of the main gate assembly from the opened to the closed conditions. The gate actuator treadle assembly can be a mechanical actuator treadle assembly or a hydraulic actuator treadle assembly which can be used on irregular terrain ground support surfaces.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,027 titled, ADJUSTABLE GATE, discloses, “a gate for livestock having an adjustable height. The gate has one or more hinges which allow an operator to raise or lower the gate to a number of positions. The hinges are securely attached to a rigidly mounted structure and slidably support the gate. Each hinge has a spring-loaded handle which engages one of a number of holes in the gate. The spring-loaded handle can be preset in one of two positions where a first position allows the gate to be raised but not lowered and the second position allows the gate to be lowered but not raised. Once the gate is raised or lowered to the desired position, the handle is set to the first position.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,209 titled FENCE GATE, discloses, “a gate for positioning between a hinge post and a latch post. The gate comprises horizontally spaced-apart end members which are channel-shaped. Each of the end members has a base portion and spaced-apart side walls extending therefrom. A plurality of metal rail members are initially secured to and extend between the end members by means of pivot bolts. When the metal gate has been adjusted to conform to elevational differences between the hinge post and the latch post, the relationship of the rail members and the end members is fixed by means of screws extending through the side walls of the end members into the ends of the rail members.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,481,156 titled KENNEL DOOR APPARATUS, discloses, “a kennel door apparatus for selectively “opening” and “closing” a kennel door, the kennel door is sized to cover an opening located in a kennel wall between a kennel pen and a common kennel area for selective access thereto. A door opening attachment may be used to cover the opening in the kennel wall. The kennel door apparatus is adapted for vertical sliding door actuation. First and second opposing, channel guides are secured to opposing sides of a protective panel. A sliding door is slidably received between the wall confronting side and the panel side of the opposing channel guides. The opposing channel guides are vertically aligned and secured about an opening in the kennel wall. A cable is used to pull the sliding door between “open” and “closed” positions. A weather strip is secured to the sliding door between the opposing channel guides. The weather strip is positioned beneath the protective panel when the sliding door is in the “closed” position. The cable may be remotely actuated to selectively move more than one kennel door between “open” and “closed” positions by manual, electrical, hydraulic, or pneumatic operation.”
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,213,368 titled APPARATUS FOR VERTICAL SLIDING PET DOOR, discloses, a “vertical sliding pet door can be used to let pets in and out easily by themselves. The pet needs to be trained in the usage of the pet door, and it also protects the house from unwanted bugs and other creatures such as rodents, as it closes as soon as the pet gets out through pet door. A locking mechanism is also provided, which helps to keep the house secure, when the sliding pet door is not being used.”
Finally, in another example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,096,727 titled RETRACTABLE POST SYSTEM, discloses, “a temporary barricade in the form of a retractable post system. In one configuration, the post is lowered into the ground, such that the top of the post is flush with the ground surface, leaving an unobtrusive configuration that one can walk over, drive over, and so forth. In another configuration, however, the post can be pulled up from the ground, and with a moderate rotational twisting motion, locked into vertical position, thereby providing a strong barrier to traffic and other situations.”
None of the foregoing references, alone or in combination, teach the salient and proprietary features of the present disclosure. While there are many fence door and/or gate configurations, there remains a need for a fence opening that when closed, mimics exactly the look and feel of the rest of the fence, almost to the point that the fence opening location is undetectable, and is easy and simple to open and re-close, as well as easy and simple to install and maintain.
The present disclosure teaches several embodiments that utilize the existing fence material and fence posts wherein the fence posts are modified and installed as disclosed herein such that the fence section located at the point of such installation may be easily vertically raised and re-lowered into place and/or in an alternative embodiment, a latch lever slid upward in a configuration that releases said lever from its corresponding fence post leaving that corresponding fence post section in place in the corresponding rotating capsule hollow and allows the section to pivot around the adjacent fence post installation.